


you swallow my heart and flee,

by smallredboy



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Bella's still dying sorry folks, Beverly Katz Lives, Boss/Employee Relationship, Complicated Relationships, Drinking & Talking, M/M, Minor Jimmy Price/Brian Zeller, Minor Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter, Polyamory, Season/Series 02, Touching, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24601309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: Zeller organizes the BSU going to a bar together, to relieve tensions. Other tensions crop up therein; most notably the ones between Will and Jack.
Relationships: Jack Crawford/Will Graham, Will Graham & Beverly Katz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25
Collections: Genprompt Bingo Round 17, Prompt Table Challenge: Shippy Building





	you swallow my heart and flee,

**Author's Note:**

> **gen prompt bingo:** the ties that bind  
>  **shippy building @ creativechallenges:** Longing
> 
> i love jack and will's dynamic and everyone does jack dirty in this fandom so i guess i'm taking matters into my own hands.
> 
> enjoy!

As it turns out, the office dynamics after one of them has been in prison for five alleged murders change drastically.

Will had already always been the odd one out, the _strange_ one, but now even more so after spending two months in jail, being prodded by an annoying psychiatrist who desperately tried to understand the version of him he had decided was the right one. Now he remains at the margins, as far away from Katz, Zeller and Price as possible, as if they will start chanting for him to go back to jail the second he does something weird.

Weird is part of his job description, anyway. But he's still nervous and on edge.

"Screw this," Zeller says one day, while in the middle of talking about one of the more regular cases, the ones without any gross mutilation and sick psyches, "I'm not gonna sit here and let us feel like the room is about to explode the whole day. We need to relax. We're going to a bar — the drinks are all on me."

Price makes a noise of disagreement. "I don't think—"

"If I see you drinking I'll kick your ass, babe," Zeller says. "He'll drive us from place to place, it's alright. So, deal?"

Jack huffs, looks at Will for his reaction from the periphery of his vision. Will shifts on his seat a little, unsure what to say to this. He's never been very close with the team, and he really desperately needs to stop getting tipsy on his own before falling asleep at his place. Drinking whiskey alone is always quite miserable.

"Sure," Will says.

"We got him," Katz jokes, "so I'll be going, too. What about you, Jack?"

"I guess I'm going," he says. "Wouldn't want any of you to drown your sorrows too much."

They all share a hearty laugh, and they go back to work. The murderer is arrested, and everything is fine. On Saturday, they'll have a nice office party, and they'll try to keep everything as normal as it can be in the Behavioral Science Unit.

* * *

Will doesn't like to think about his bond with Hannibal, the thread that keeps them close together as he tries to catch him, as he tries to incriminate him in the innumerable crimes he has committed. He also doesn't like to think about his bond with Jack.

There's a long, complicated thread between them. He exacerbated his illness by pushing him, but he always meant the best for him. And the looks they gave each other before everything went to shit…. the vague references to him and Bella being in an open relationship made him think too much about it. But now all of that is ruined (not that it had any chance to flourish to begin with), because he's too wrapped up in the case of Hannibal and Jack is almost begrudgingly listening to him, listening to the way the floorboards creaked whenever Hannibal did something. With his thinly veiled cannibalism puns, and whatnot.

He remembers fondly back when Jack first went to his classroom. The way he fixed his glasses, his hand brushing against his cheek. He didn't stop thinking about it for days afterward, even though he had other things to worry about.

And now that he's in a setting as far away from work as there is — a _bar_ — his thoughts on his bond with Jack come back full force as he takes sips from a glass of whiskey, until he's pleasantly buzzed. It's not much, he's not a fan of getting completely drunk, but he still gets a little looser, a little less closed off.

"I heard you went back to therapy with Hannibal," Katz says, smiling at him. "What's that like?"

"Uh, well, we're dealing with what we did to each other, you know," he says. He clears his throat. "What I did to him, mostly. It's… a mess, but he forgives me. He gets that I was being delusional and having a hard time."

"Well, you weren't being completely delusional," Zeller pipes up. "You _were_ right about someone framing you."

He takes a long sip from his whiskey glass. "Well, I wasn't right about _who_ ," he replies. "So it doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"I guess," Katz says, shrugging. She turns to Zeller. "You should go check on your husband, maybe. He looks awfully tense over there."

Zeller turns and goes to check on Price, who's eyeing the drinks the bartender is making from the other side of the building.

"How're you and Jack?" Katz asks.

He shrugs. "Well, we're trying to deal with, you know, everything. He was an asshole about all of it, you know, but I don't blame him. The evidence was damning and I acted like a blind man trying to point out where a fly was."

"He looks at you a lot, you know," she points out as she takes a long sip of tequila.

"What — what do you mean?"

She gives him a shrug. "He's always offhandedly mentioned that Bella has other partners, and that he has had some too, and he _looks_ at you. Like, really looks at you."

Will sighs. "Yeah, I know."

"Do you look at him, too?"

"I suppose I do," he replies.

His moorings aren't built on sand, as much as he likes to think so. Jack is immobile, Jack is bedrock. Jack will take whatever happens between them, whatever crazy thing he comes up with to catch Hannibal, and he will put that blind faith on him once again, even after all that has happened. It would be easy, to forget about Hannibal after they catch him, to try and take a chance with a man about to mourn his wife, to try and take a chance with his boss.

They've certainly never pretended to have a very professional relationship. He doubts he would take him to Human Resources. But his problems are piling up, and even with his encephalitis cured he's still hallucinating on and off, so he shouldn't try and pursue something with his boss, who's already under the microscope because of what Alana said. If the board finds out, it would be a _mess_.

"Then what are you waiting for? For his wife to pass away?"

"I'm waiting on catching the Ripper," Will replies, voice sharp as he shakes his head. "I'm not going to _take advantage_ of a mourning man, Beverly."

She nods. "I know, Will. Just try and at least talk to him about what's going on, alright? You can have a chat about it, establish that nothing's gonna happen while the sexual tension eats both of you alive. You know, normal things."

He groans. "I live in a god damned soap opera," he mumbles as he finally looks back at where Jack is sitting. They've dispersed, and he's there with a glass of some fruity cocktail, comfortable on one of the few seats that aren't a barstool. He gets his whiskey glass filled and goes to sit in front of him.

"Hi, Jack," he says.

"Hello, Will," he replies, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Could we… talk?"

"About what?"

"About us." Jack goes stiff. He lets out a sigh. "Look, we can't just pretend we're not like, emotionally repressed and wanting each other forever."

"I would prefer to pretend," he replies. "I am not getting in any sort of relationship with an employee, Will, much less you."

Will nearly laughs, remembering a past conversation with Alana. He puts his hand over his heart. "What, too broken to date?" he jokes.

"Yes," he replies, which throws him off his rhythm. "I can't date you, Will. For many reasons."

"Are we waiting until Hannibal is behind bars?"

"We are not _waiting_ , Will," Jack replies. "I don't — I can't go dating around like I did when Bella was well. Much less with… with _you_. You are unstable, and you are my employee, and as much as we might keep threading at these _feelings_ between us, I can't simply put my morals away and sleep with you."

He sighs. "I suppose," he says, finally, after a few moments of silence. Before he can help himself, he says, "Even as everything was going on, I still thought a lot about how you fixed my glasses the first time you came into my classroom."

Jack looks away. "I couldn't help myself. It's a pet peeve of mine, and I found you… very handsome."

" _Found_?"

"I still do," he says. He clears his throat. "I think we should keep our relationship… strictly professional, Will. For everyone's sake, but especially mine. I cannot date around while my wife is dying. I am sure you understand that."

"Of course, Jack," he says. He draws in a breath, gives him a small, pained smile. "Maybe in another world we'd be in a different situation," he offers.

"I have given that other world a lot of thought," he says. "And I'm sure you have, too. But we need to get out of imagination and focus on the reality we have in front of ourselves."

Will and him both know that they'll still spend time in that world, when he's away from the sound of everyday life, when he's at home and drinks two fingers of whiskey before bed, to end up dreaming about going on a date with his boss, until something bloody and terrible interrupts it. He's well aware of how it goes by now.

"Sure," he replies. He clears his throat. "I had an idea about how to get Hannibal to trust me more. We'd have to talk it out with this one person you don't like, but…"

They change the topic to Freddie's faked death, and Will puts his glasses on somewhere in between. He likes to do that, to feel smart, to feel listened to while Jack looks at him intently.

Almost on purpose, he lets them slip off the bridge of his nose. 

And Jack knows what he's doing, but he still answers. He still goes and asks, softly, "May I…?" as he takes the frame and pushes his glasses up. For once, Will looks at him in the eye, and Jack's hand brushes against his cheek.

They stay there for far too long. 

When Will closes his eyes, he can almost pretend he is at his classroom once again.


End file.
